Billy Packer called to make clarification

During his speech last Tuesday night at DeSales, Packer told a lot of great stories. Some were funny, some drew tears, some had a little of both elements.

As he recapped his college career at Wake Forest, Packer had some funny stories about his coach Bones McKinney. I didn't think he portrayed McKinney in the best light and wrote in my column in Wednesday's paper that Packer basically impiled McKinney was a "bigoted buffoon."

The point of Packer's call was to tell me that he was sorry that was the impression I got from his Wake Forest stories that night, which he admitted he embellished just a bit to describe what a different experience it was for a kid from Bethlehem to play ball in the south in that era.

Packer was very nice, not nasty at all, and didn't necessarily request a correction.

I apologized and said I would attempt to set the record straight, so I want to do that here.

Packer said he greatly admired and respected McKinney and called him one of the most influential people in his life. He said McKinney, who also became a TV guy, was a smart, brilliant guy and an excellent coach.

I appreciated the clarification and hopefully cleared this up for anyone else who might have gotten the same impression from Packer's comments.

Packer, as stated here and in the paper, was very entertaining that night and showed why he was once the voice of college basketball on NBC and CBS. I think a lot of people misunderstand him, too, but he's also a brilliant guy who knows a lot more than just basketball.

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Keith -

I understand your desire to set the record straight about Billy, but the only concept that doesn't ring true about McKinney is "buffoon". Bones was a good coach, but the bigot angle rings pretty true. The south in the days before the Kennedy presidency was full of coaches whose thoughts closely mirrored those of the fans around their schools. Adolph Rupp is probably the most famous example. Great coach, but absolutely bigoted. Of course, there were exceptions (Dick McGuire and a few others), but blacks didn't play in the south's major conferences or schools until Don Haskins came along at Texas Western.

Billy may not have intended for those thoughts to be imparted through his speech, but even humor has a definitive source.

Posted By: smallsan | Apr 21, 2009 9:10:48 AM

Billy Packer, like so many of yester-year, and even more today, either forgot or never knew the Golden Rule of team sports: 'It's never about me, it's never about what I want, it's never my team--it's OUR team (whether one is a player or a coach).'

One of the coaches Keith wrote about today referred to "my players"-----------they're NOT his players. Lebron James said the Cavs are "my team." Mr. James may very well get the gold this year but he'll still have done things the WRONG way. No player owns the team. "My team" = no!

If Mr. Packer had done things the right way, he would not have compromised himself in any fashion regarding what Coach McKinney may or may not have been. It's not only about you Billy, even when you're the speaker. You were a member of a team, team first, you second.